Portfolio companies

Afrimarket

Based in France, with local offices in Africa, Afrimarket offers an innovative money transfer solution: the ‘cash-to-goods’, which allows the African diaspora to instantly pay from Europe foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals and school supplies for their relatives in Africa.

A useful and cheaper than traditional players transfer service

Each year, the sum of the currencies sent by African diasporas (excluding North Africa) to their home country is about tens of billions of dollars ($41bn in 2012). However, users of these services must pay high commissions via traditional players and cash recovery in the country of destination is not easy (travel, identification, security …).

Through its network of local partners, Afrimarket allows people to control their spending by sending money for a dedicated use, directly to a partner point of sale (pharmacies, supermarkets, bookstores, hospitals, etc.). No more bank notes to recover, only products and services. Above this, Afrimarket is charging much lower shipping costs than other players. Eventually, beyond the useful aspect of money transfer, the “cash-to-goods” is used to inject money directly in local economies and to provide more benefits to local actors.

Orange with its presence in both Europe and Africa; with Orange Money, its mobile money service in Africa and the Middle East, is a natural partner for Afrimarket.

For Pierre Louette, Deputy CEO of Orange and President of Orange Digital Ventures said: “Afrimarket is a start-up at a development stage, offering an original and promising offer: this is a good example of the type of project in which we want to invest with Orange Digital Ventures.”